


A History of the Royal House of Direna House Aurelion

by dream_fire



Series: The World of Pemia [1]
Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:48:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27053680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dream_fire/pseuds/dream_fire
Summary: An in-universe history of the Royal Family of Direna.
Series: The World of Pemia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974484





	A History of the Royal House of Direna House Aurelion

Over 1,500 years ago the Direnan valley was ruled not by House Aurelion but by a different house called Sedren. House Sedren had ruled Direna for the thousand years of history known as the first era. Before them the land was sparsely inhabited and lacked any form of central government. The people who lived there looked after their own and cared little for the going on of outsiders. King Ryen the First saw this as an opportunity to make a name for his family and he took the valley in two years' time. He spent his reign establishing House Sedren as the rulers of a new land and establishing the nobility. His dynasty was well respected and influential but over the centuries its power diminished and the noble families began fighting for power and influence. This plunged the valley into chaos and led to Direna becoming a fractured land with dozens of petty kings and lords. The valley would remain fractured for the five hundred year long time known as the Broken Second Era.

House Aurelion was a prominent noble house of what is now called the Tiber Province--a land of rich forests and rolling hills. It was founded by a man named Aurelius who saw a solar eclipse and was said to have described it like a circle of molten gold in the sky. This description would later become the house’s sigil. They were among the first and most ardent supporters of House Sedren, even to the end. When House Sedren’s line ended and Direna fractured House Aurelion became regional Kings and Queens of most of today’s Tiber province. Their decision to allow women to inherit the crown over younger brothers was unusual and frowned upon at the time by other houses but this custom would not prove its downfall. Some of House Aurelion's greatest monarchs were women including Aila I, Aina I, Natya II, Aila II and Aila IV. They also held onto the practice that men marrying the queen, or future queen, would take their wife's name so that House Aurelion's name would live on throughout the generations. 

Aila Aurelion was the eldest child to King Daymien VI and was born in 476 SE. She had several younger siblings including Daymien born in 478, Aiyanna born in 481, Jannon born in 483 and Aisanna born in 497. As the heir she was provided with the best education available at the time and even attended the Rycoff Academy which royals, nobility, the wealthy and the extraordinary still attend to this day. Her father died in 494 SE and she took the crown for her own despite the calls for her younger brother Daymien to be crowned in her place by her mother Moorna of the House Shaar. Aila had her mother’s family exiled from court and forced her two younger brothers to swear fealty to her in case an outsider conspired for them to dispute her claim. Her mother’s family would not forget this insult in the years to come and would prove her most difficult adversaries. 

It is unknown why she decided to reunify the Direnan valley and historians today can only guess at her motive. Some say she read one of the ancient tomes of her castle’s library about the time that House Sedren ruled the land and wanted to bring back a time of peace and prosperity. While others say she was power hungry, treacherous and wanted the land for herself. Regardless of the reason why she did what she did Aila began to plan for her reunification in early 495 SE and began to take the smaller kingdoms bordering her lands. Then she began planning to take the larger rival kingdoms which included the Otans of Leta, Kerrals of Northern Merena, Monoels of Southern Merena and Western Scalia and the Yasuoys of Eastern Scalia.

This was by no means an easy process but it was said she had a true military mind. By late 496 FE she had already taken the Kerral's and the Monoel's lands and in 497 she married Rynen of House Otan to add his expertise, and his land, to her efforts. With his help they would take the lands of the Yasuoys and of the smaller kingdoms that remained unconquered. At the behest of his brother Rynen took the name Aurelion out of respect for his new queen and out of respect for her house's traditions. It was said that he had the mind to match her and the military presence to command the troops when she could not. Unfortunately Rynen was a somewhat cruel man and felt he deserved to be King not her prince consort. This information was revealed by letters and diaries kept by those close to the Queen and Prince-Consort that were released 150 years later. This personality and cruel nature of his would lead to divorce in 13 TE which was unusual at the time. 

In 1 TE Queen Aila Aurelion, first of her name, was crowned after finishing the reunification of Direna. The ancient castle known as Aurelius’ Eclipse would become the seat of the new Royal House but she also knew that if she was to appease the newly conquered lords she would need to include them in the governing of the country. She immediately set out plans to build a city around her castle that in modern times this city is called "Old Meteen." The most significant building of the city is referred to as "The Lords and Ladies Palace" which was a governmental building with gathering halls, office-spaces, kitchens, servants quarters, ballrooms and chambers for visiting lords and foreign dignitaries to stay in. 

She gave birth to three children over the course of six years. Daymond, the eldest, was born in 2 TE, then Natya in 4 TE and Liron in 7 TE. According to the diaries of Daymond I and Natya I Prince Rynen had unmeetable expectations for the first children of a new dynasty and his cruel nature was brought even more against his children. The Queen had tolerated his personality for the sake of public appearances and out of respect for his help reunifying the valley but the treatment of his children proved to be what broke the marriage. She divorced him much to his objections in 13 TE. Her refusal to remarry for the remainder of her life brought suspicion that he had mistreated her as well and made her afraid of having another husband, although this was never confirmed. 

From accounts of the early years of House Aurelion's rule in the second era Aila I knew that early dynasties often faced the risk of losing heirs or said heirs having short reigns as monarch. It may have been the third era and five hundred years later but Aila I considered this fact very carefully. When each of her children reached the age of twelve she would have each of them study at the Rycoff academy and had both Daymond and Natya learn about ruling a nation. She also distrusted her younger siblings because she knew that now that she ruled a large and powerful nation her siblings might attempt to take it from her and her children. She made it law in 15 TE that her siblings and their children weren't in the line of succession and that they dynasty would be divided into the Aurelions of the Second Era and the Aurelions of the Third Era. This act essentially created a new dynasty under the same name.

It would be important to mention what had happened in the lives of Aila I's siblings since her coronation up until this act was passed. Daymien had served as an officer in her military and had died in the siege of Mountain's Edge, the seat of the Yasouys. Aisanna and Aiyanna had both married into the Kerrals and the Monoels in order to bind them to her family and maintain peace. Jannon, the youngest of the Aurelion children, was a ward of Aila I, but their mother Moorna was still conspiring to place the crown on his head instead of Aila I's. 

In 22 TE Jannon and Lady Moorna would conspire the rebel and claim that since Aila I had separated the dynasty that she had no claim to the lands that their family had held since the beginning of the second era. Aila I caught wind of this plan early and had her mother, brother and most of her mother's house imprisoned and later exiled to an uninhabited island in the Estian archipelago to the far North of the Indigo Sea. They would have enough supplies to survive but they would hold no lands, titles or wealth and would have no sway with global politics. 

There were rumors that since Aila I had conquered the Yasuoy's lands House Yasuoy had been plotting rebellion against the crown as well and the queen suspected this as well. When her brother attempted rebellion in the 'One Year Revolt' the queen arranged a marriage for her son Prince Daymond heir to the throne of Direna to Arnette of House Yasuoy to ensure their loyalty to the throne. She also arranged for the marriage between her daughter Princess Natya and Nartyn of Marrowland in 24 TE to ensure that Marrowland would keep a close eye on the remote Estian island that held Jannon and Lady Moorna's family in the event that Jannon ever attempted to rebel again. She allowed her final child Prince Liron to marry for love and in 28 TE he married Tasana of Takaba. 

Queen Aila spent much of the rest of her reign establishing trade relations with neighboring and nearby nations. She formed close alliances with Marrowland, Takaba, Somirta, Yizplet and Akamei. She was a fair and decent ruler and left the Direnan valley in a better state than it was when she took it. Her forty year reign drew to a close in 40 TE when she died at the age of 64 of sudden illness.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't expect this series to get views since AO3 is mainly for fandom stuff but this is a passion project for me. 
> 
> Here is a list of pronunciations of some of the names (because I pick strange names that're hard to pronounce):  
> \- The "Ai" at the beginning of a lot of the girl's names is pronounced like "I"  
> \- Aurelion: Aw-ray-lee-on  
> \- Yasuoy: Yahs-oy  
> \- Scalia: Scah-lee-a  
> \- Monoel: Mo-nule (not mo-no-elle)  
> \- Merena: Mare-na  
> \- Natya similar to Nadia  
> The rest of name's of places are pretty self-explanatory


End file.
